Al Byrd got a phone call Monday that he'll never forget. His house was torn down. A demolition company had been hired to demolish a house but didn't have an address, just GPS coordinates. Those coordinates led the crew to Al's house. "You can't imagine. It's just incredulous that something like this can happen and no one contact the owner," said Byrd. The demolition company said that they had paperwork for the demo. "I said, 'Paperwork for what?' and he said, 'For the house, to demolish the house.' I said, 'I'm the owner of the house, I haven't given anybody any authority to demolish this house.' I said, 'What address did you have?' and he said, 'They sent me some GPS coordinates.' I said, 'Don't you have an address?' (and) he said, 'Yes, my GPS coordinates led me right to this address here and this house was described,'" said Al.

Socguy writes "More than 40,000 gallons of radioactive water leaked into the open when a 15ft crack appeared in a pipe leading to a cooling pond in the Sizewell A reactor in January 2007. This was only noticed by chance as a worker was sorting laundry in the area when it happened. Supposedly, a leak of this type should have set off alarms, however, the alarm in question appeared to be defective. Should this leak have gone unnoticed, there was a real likelihood of a full-scale meltdown."

pdragon04 writes "From the article, 'Through education Dr. Steven C. Schlozman is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a lecturer at the Harvard School of Education. He is also an avid sci-fi and horror fan — and, apparently, the world's leading authority on the neurobiology of the living dead ... He conducted extensive research by talking with George Romero and immersing himself in genre literature and memorabilia — which is why the alternate title for his lecture is "A Way Cool Tax Deduction for a Bunch of Cool Books, Action Figures and a Movie."'"

18-year-old Jessica Terry suffered from stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting and fever for eight years. She often missed school and her doctors were unable to figure out the cause of her sickness. Then one day in January someone was finally figured out what was wrong with Jessica. That person was her. While looking under a microscope at slides of her own intestinal tissue in her AP science class, Jessica noticed an area of inflamed tissue called a granuloma, which is an indication of Crohn's disease. "It's weird I had to solve my own medical problem," Terry told CNN affiliate KOMO in Seattle, Washington. "There were just no answers anywhere. ... I was always sick."

Mike writes "Austrian designers mischer'traxler have created a solar powered machine that makes an incredible array of furnishings that vary based on how much sunlight it receives over the course of a day. Titled 'The Idea of a Tree,' the machine spins spools of thread into stools, benches, containers, and lamp shades that wax and wane as the available sunlight shifts. Furniture created during cloudy winter days will be wrapped more slowly, causing it to be darker in color, thicker, and smaller than pieces created during the sun-soaked summer months."

The Grim Reefer2 writes "Sebastian Neale, a 26-year-old from South Wales and mega-fan of the Doctor Who series, passed away recently due to head injuries and was given a proper Dr. Who-themed send-off. The funeral music was swapped out in favor of the Dr. Who's theme song and mourners were greeted with the Doctor's words, 'I'm a time lord ... I'm not a human being. I walk in eternity.' Instead of Bible verses, the funeral consisted of quotes from classic Who scripts, including William Hartnell's famous speech from 'The Dalek Invasion Of Earth': 'One day, I will come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.'"

The economic downturn has forced lots of companies to make cuts and discontinue some retirement benefits, but Molson may have gone too far. Current retirees will see their monthly allotment of free beer drop from six dozen a month to zero over the next five years. Molson says providing the 2,400 retirees with proof that God loves them costs the company about C$1 million ($900,000) a year. "There was no consultation, we just received a letter that this is a done deal, which is totally unfair," said Bill Bavis, who retired six years ago after 32 years.

A bad day is working in a bakery and having your arm amputated in an accident with a kneading machine. A worse day having someone throwing your severed arm in the dumpster while you're being rushed to the hospital. After Franns Rilles's accident, the bakery cleaned the machines and continued production. The police didn't find the arm until the next day and by then it couldn't be reattached. Locals say the bakery has a good reputation and the prices are very reasonable. The bakery down the street costs an arm and a leg.

An elderly woman "almost fainted" when she discovered her daughter had bought her a new mattress, and thrown away the old one which contained the woman's life savings. The daughter rushed to get the mattress back but she was too late. It had been mixed up with another 3,000 tonnes of rubbish collected that day. A search of 3 different landfills have failed to turn up the $1 million dollar mattress. "People have to take everything in proportion and thank God for the good and the bad," said the daughter. Her mother had no comment.

Making the subway safe, one bullion stitch at a time.

Bocaj writes "A USB microwave specifically designed for baked beans? Yep, the folks at HEINZ are smokin' the good stuff. Seriously. Even Gizmodo says it's real. I want one of these. I'm just not sure why."

Sometimes being gullible can seem sweet or endearing. Sometimes it can lead you to smash windows, break sprinkler heads, shut off the electricity, and pull the fire alarm. Christina Bergmann was working the front desk at an Arkansas Holiday Inn, when a male caller "identified himself as an employee of Grennel Fire Sprinkler service." The man told her that there was a problem with the hotels sprinkler system. She "needed to pull the fire alarm to reset them." Christina, with the help of a destruction-loving hotel guest, proceeded to follow the caller's instructions — which resulted in damages to the hotel's windows, carpets and electrical system, totalling about $50,000.

A dog owner got a big surprise while playing fetch with her dog after the pooch brought her a live World War II era US hand grenade. Police called a munitions expert to identify and defuse the grenade. It is not uncommon for people to find grenades and bombs left over from World War II in parts of Germany.

In the epic battles between elephant gangs and biker gangs, elephant gangs usually win.

A shoe-maker, Aetrex Worldwide, and GTX Corp, a company that makes miniaturized Global Positioning Satellite tracking and location-transmitting devices, are teaming up to make shoes for people suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. "The technology will provide the location of the individual wearing the shoes within 9m (30 feet), anywhere on the planet. Sixty per cent of individuals afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease will be involved in a 'critical wandering incident' at least once during the progression of the disease — many more than once," said Andrew Carle, an assistant professor at George Mason University who served as an advisor on the project. Not only will this technology allow a caretaker to find a loved one with a click of a mouse, but the shoes are more humanizing than a bell hung around the neck.

He will refocus on achievable goals like applying deodorant daily, and learning what to say when you burp.

A printing mistake led some recent North High School grads to get a note with instructions to "leave the state immediately after the ceremony." The note should have read, "The graduates will leave the State Theatre immediately after the ceremony." The new note wasn't free of errors, however, as it now instructed students to be at the theater no later than 3:45 a.m. instead of the intended 3:45 p.m.

What's worse than going through a foreclosure? Getting trapped inside the house after the city boards it up, without first checking to make sure it's empty. Ted Poetsch was spending the last hour he had to vacate his home of 53 years by eating a little lunch and collecting a few last personal items. That's when he heard the contractor outside starting to drill into the door frame. Cane in hand, he hurried to the front door only to discover that he was too late. He had been boarded up inside. City officials say that Mr. Poetsch had ample warning that they were coming that day and that his brief incarceration was a mistake.

After suffering a stroke, 69-year-old Ali Asghar was unlucky enough to get an ambulance driver who really, really, hated overtime. The driver allegedly refused to work beyond his shift and clocked out part-way through the trip to the hospital. Since it was 15 minutes past quitting time, the ambulance was taken to the depot where the next shift's driver took over and finally brought Mr. Asghar to the hospital. Asghar deteriorated during the drive and died soon after arriving at North Tees hospital's accident and emergency unit. An NHS source said, "Paramedics pride themselves on the public being able to feel they are in the best hands when they are called out to an emergency. If this person wanted a nine to five job he should not have become a paramedic. A couple of minutes in a life or death situation is a very long time. Skimming off just a few seconds from an emergency call-out can save lives — that's why ambulances are fitted with blue lights and sirens."

Forget about an old boot or a tire, Solomon Rodney caught an 8-foot-long missile on a recent fishing trip. Rodney tied the missile to the top of his boat and planned on keeping it as a souvenir. After contacting officials when he got ashore, it was determined that the missile was live. A bomb squad from MacDill Air Force Base was summoned, and the area was evacuated before the weapon was dismantled. Rodney says the Air Force told him not to pick up any more missiles. "They told me if you find another one, just let it go," he said.